78966: He insists that his wife go out to pray ‘Isha’ and Taraweeh whilst he stays with his daughter

My husband insists that I should pray Taraweeh whilst he stays with our daughter. After he insisted I went and prayed, and he stayed with her. What is the ruling on my prayer and on his staying with her? Please note that he did not pray ‘Isha’ in congregation because he stayed with the child.

Published Date: 2006-04-01

Praise be to Allaah.

Firstly:

Prayer in
congregation in the mosque is obligatory for men according to the more
correct of the two scholarly opinions, because of a great deal of evidence
to that effect, which has been quoted in the answer to question no.
120.

Taraweeh
prayer is a confirmed Sunnah (Sunnah mu’akkadah), and men should offer it in
congregation in the mosque. This has been explained in the answer to
question no. 45781.

Secondly:

It is better
for a woman to pray in her home than in the mosque, because the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Do not prevent your
womenfolk from coming to the mosques, although their houses are better for
them.” Narrated by Abu Dawood (567); classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in
Saheeh Abi Dawood.

And the
Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “A woman’s
prayer in her house is better than her prayer in her yard, and her prayer in
her chamber is better than her prayer in her house.” Narrated by Abu Dawood
(570); classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in Saheeh Abi Dawood.

This is
general in meaning and includes Taraweeh prayer and other prayers. Please
see question no. 3457.

Based on
this, what your husband did is strange, because he forsook an obligatory
duty, which is praying ‘Isha’ in congregation in the mosque, then he forsook
a Sunnah which should not be neglected, namely praying Taraweeh in
congregation in the mosque. All of that was so that you could do something
that at the most is permissible and is not obligatory or mustahabb.

But perhaps
he does not know that it is obligatory to pray in congregation, and he did
that to honour you. May Allaah reward him with good for his kind treatment
of you, but he should not do that again in the future. He can treat you
kindly by enabling you to pray at home and keeping distractions from the
children etc away from you.